Stimulus Stimulates For-Profit Colleges

Posted on March 13, 2009
Filed Under Reading List, The Daily Prereq | By Jessica Gross

Mmm, yummy stimulus package! What a delicious gift for universities, which will get bundles of money. But wait — these universities include for-profit colleges. Aren’t they already benefiting from the financial crisis?

Why yes, they are. Since for-profit schools are much cheaper than non-profit universities, undergrads have been flocking to them in record numbers.

But government funding for for-profits is suspect for other reasons, too. According to BusinessWeek, enrollment numbers aren’t just increasing incidentally: for-profit schools have used various forms of trickery, like emails describing (fake) unresolved matters, to hook as many applicants as they can. Plus, graduation rates are low, and the quality of for-profit degrees is questionable.

“I don’t think a degree from the University of Phoenix adds any value at all,” says Edward Fleischman, chief executive of Execu/Search Group, a New York recruiting firm that specializes in financial services and health care. “It means you could not get into a better school.”

For the full story, go here.

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